Dutch Wonderland

This blog is a week late, but better late than never.

Last Sunday we traveled 1.5 hours to Amish Country, Lancaster PA, Dutch Wonderland. I had never been there before, and only heard of it about 5 years back from locals in this area. It is a really child focused amusement park. It has lots of little kiddie rides. There are a few child/adult rides, but for the most parts any kid from 1.5-5 yrs old would simply love this place.

We went with my parents and had a great time! DW is ranked the 5th best amusement park in the world according to an international amusement magazine. A neat thing to know is Idlewild Park is ranked at #2. Back to DW. Dutch Wonderland's mascot is a Purple Dragon (no, not a purple dinosaur) named Duke. That front of the park is a big castle. Nathan went on about 60% of the rides. A couple he was not too fond of were the child rollercoaster, and the whip. I went on the rollercoaster with him, and he tucked his face in my belly the whole ride. I guess he did not know how it was going to be, but wanted to ride.

The biggest mistake was putting him on the whip. It is a small ride that I have seen at other amusement pars that travels sideways around an oval track. When the car gets close to an end, it whips you around. Nathan started crying almost immediately. We should of had them stop the ride, but none of us said anything. I actually remember riding it as a child and remembered it was too rough, so I thought it could happen.

DW had a bunch of the typical kiddieland rides. It also had some really nice ones that went around the enitre park like a monorail, and sky lift. It also had a few boat rides.

When Nathan napped I dragged my mom on the older child/adult roller coaster. Amy went on it with me as well. It was pretty nice for a small park.

What makes the park great was it was relatively small, and easy to get around Enough you could cover the entire park. Plus, even with lots of kids there, there was never a really long line for any one ride. You definately get your money's worth of ride if your a kid.

The park also had a pony ride. Nathan looked really cute on it. It was his first. However, he was really sleepy, and looked like a cowboy who just got back from a long ride. He took a 1.5 hr nap after lunch.

They also had a lot of live entertainment and shows. We attended a high dive one. Where they put on a play about a frog and a princess. The frogs dived off highdives. One actually dove from a real high dive probably 100ft or so in the aire, like the ones you see on the olypics.

It was a blast.

I bid you goodnight.